Author Archives: Guest Author

Social Media Strategies: How to Engage the New Consumer

Now more than ever consumers are purchasing with a purpose. In the fourth annual Edelman goodpurpose® Study, experts indicate that what consumers want goes beyond just form and function to include a positive community impact.

As a business leader, are you doing the best job possible to develop sales if you focus on innovation, design, and brand loyalty? Not really. According to the study, nearly half (47%) of respondents said that social purpose ranks higher than brand loyalty and design and innovation as a purchase motivator. In addition, another recent PRWeek/Barkley Cause Survey suggests that a full 88 percent of American men say it’s crucial for a brand to support a social cause. Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing, Strategy & Trends by Guest Author | Monday, December 20th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Link Building Strategies

The idea behind PageRank is that if a page is important, other web pages will link to it. The more important the linking page is itself, the more weight (“link juice”) that link would have. This system works amazingly well, instantly bringing up relevant pages for almost any search, without giving benefit to “keyword stuffing” and other attempts to trick the search engine into ranking a page higher. It works so well that Google is no longer the only search engine that is shifting to a link-based algorithm…

Read more about link building strategies. Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing, Strategy & Trends by Guest Author | Monday, December 13th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Power & Influence of Social Media: Shifting Consumer Behaviors

Social media has had explosive growth as a “trustworthy source” because so many individuals look to social media in their personal life, work life, and everyday life. From Facebook to Twitter, and LinkedIn to Evernote, we’re constantly surrounded by family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances that rely heavily on social media sources as their primary sources for information and relevant content. So, the next important question to ask is: Will this be the end of traditional media, and is it dead? “Dead” might not be the word. “Dying” might best reflect what’s truly happening with traditional media outlets. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by Guest Author | Monday, July 12th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Whose Game Is This Anyway? What Happens When the Actual Starbucks Barista Becomes Mayor?

Foursquare’s partnership with Starbucks is giving the game even more mainstream exposure but also leading to the kinds of stakeholder complications I discuss in my recent posting about Facebook. The dilemma outlined in a recent article is this… Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Guest Author | Monday, June 28th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Who Will Capture the Flag? The Convergence of Digital, Traditional, Media & PR Agencies

A recent “AdWeek” article observed that, “digitally centric agencies like R/GA are adding more traditional brand-building capabilities while TBWA and BBDO are trying to apply digital to their orgs.” Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Guest Author | Monday, June 14th, 2010 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

FourSquare: What the Buzz is About?

If you’ve been using social networks for the past few years, you’ve seen how the buzz has shifted from MySpace to Facebook to Twitter and back to Facebook. These seemingly organic shifts between virtual worlds have probably left you wondering what might… Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Guest Author | Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How Governments Should Use Crowdsourcing

The Conservative party have been making a lot of noise about Crowdsourcing. Obama is its pioneer. But they have little in the way of practical details about Crowdsourcing strategies and mechanisms. Here is a list of applications of Crowdsourcing in government that we think could prove the most effective… Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by Guest Author | Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Crowdsourcing: Staking A Claim In The Fashion Industry

This is a message to all of the dedicated followers of fashion out there: start saving your pennies and re-assess your wardrobes. The latest offering from the world of crowdsourcing proudly presents ‘Fashion Stake’- a new start-up business website that will… Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Guest Author | Monday, April 12th, 2010 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Crowdsourcing Ads for World Cup in South Africa

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup less than 100 days away, South Africa is harnessing growing global enthusiasm by inviting citizens around the world to engage in a user-generated advertising contest on the Zooppa crowdsourcing platform. The Get Wildly… Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Guest Author | Thursday, April 1st, 2010 | Tagged , | 1 Comment

RIP Big Websites?

BIG, all-encompassing websites could be as redundant as the Lesser Spotted Floppy Disk if the future of digital marketing continues to fragment and accelerate campaigning efforts to the realms of Twitter, Facebook et al. Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Guest Author | Monday, March 22nd, 2010 | Tagged , | 2 Comments

What Motivates Cultural Influencers to Promote Change

Musicians by nature are emotionally connected to the world in profound ways. They are able to see and feel things in a way that is unique to their views. Because of their strong emotional connection to the world they are drawn to helping others and making the world we live in a better place. To understand why the creative culture gets involved with certain causes, here are five key reasons that drive their passions. Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Guest Author | Monday, July 20th, 2009 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment